Fire on Stiperstones

September 1st 2012 Despite the recent rain the heather moorland at Mytton Dingle caught fire recently- leaving a dark shadow on the landscape which can be seen for miles. 

Adrian Pickles

Bee Hotel news reaches Walsall

Follow the link below to see some nice photos and read an article about the FSC Preston Montford Bee Hotel.
http://walsallwildlife.wordpress.com/2012/08/30/a-luxury-bee-bee/

Adrian Pickles

Young Darwin Scholars

What would Darwin do today?

Great Crested Newt

Fifteen selected young people were awarded the first FSC Young Darwin Scholarships this summer. The first outcome was a course for all of them at FSC Preston Montford which encouraged them to consider what Darwin would do if he were alive and aged 16 or 17 today.

Chafer Beetle larva

The course began with a walk and a look around the FSC Preston Montford estate which was  followed by visits to Shrewsbury to see Darwin sites, down the leadmine at Snailbeach and up to the Stiperstones  via The Bog Visitor Centre. A day was spent canoeing along the Severn looking for invasive species as well as kingfishers and otters and another day working with a range of experts to identify as many species as possible on the FSC Preston Montford site.

On the river

Southern Hawker

There was badger watching and bat spotting and insect hunting and looking at the ponds and Bee Hotel along with many inspiring case studies from people working in the field of wildlife and conservation.

Southern Hawker

The scholars came from across the country and brought a huge range of expertise and enthusiasm with them. They were a pleasure to be with and everyone of the many people who contributed to the programme commented on this.

Thanks are due to a great list of people who contributed to the programme...Mike Morris, Jamie Drummond, Sue Townsend, Pete Boardman, Ian Cheeseborough, Bex Cartwright, Rebecca Farley-Brown, Dan Wrench,  Helen Trotman, Peter Sheldrake, Sue Redding and Louise Parker.

The Young Darwin Scholarship programme is a new venture for the FSC as we are trying to support Young People who are considering a future working in the natural environment at key points in their development. Individual support starts with this course but will continue over the next few years in a variety of different guises. There will be a similar course for the 2013 scholars next August. Monitor the FSC website for further details

Adrian Pickles and Sarah Anstis-Smith

Poo

Fox

Rabbit

Fox 2

We get a lot of poo at FSC Preston Montford and here are some images of some of our recent animal offerings.

In early August we began to find some different droppings and so far we are having much debate about whether this is fruit filled fox faeces or the droppings of young badgers who haven't yet become toilet trained to adult badger standard. Any definite ideas about this would be gladly received

The image above shows what we are dealing with....

Adrian Pickles

Slime moulds

There are more things on heaven and earth etc etc and Slime Moulds are some of those things that many people don't know about. We only see the fruiting bodies of these organisms but don't see the mass of material inside the host. They occur for a few days and then disappear.

Bruce Ing formerly of the University of Chester ran a course on micro fungi in spring 2012 and hopefully will run another in 2014. His visit sparked my interest in slime moulds and I have been spotting some around the FSC Preston Montford estate this year.

Here are some photographs of slime moulds fruiting bodies developing and decaying at PM this year

Slime moulds often develop on decaying wood or trees and the one below grew on a pile of wood chippings produced when the willows around the Centre waste water treatment system was pollarded earlier in the year. It is a species called Fuligo septica and this is only the third time it has been recorded in Shropshire and will be added to our Wildlife Report for 2012

Fuligo septica is similar to a famous slime mould known for obvious reasons as Dog's Vomit Slime mould

Leaf Hoppers in the field

Alan Stewart lead a course on Leaf Hoppers at FSC Preston Montford over the weekend of July 20-22. Course members  identified 23 species on the Preston Montford site and a further 06 species on a visit to Llanymynech Rocks. 10 of the species had not been identified at Preston Montford before so these will be a welcome addition to our Wildlife Report for 2012

Over 400 species of Leaf Hopper have been identified in the UK so we have 5% of these on site.

We intend to run a similar course next year so watch out for details on the FSC website or contact the Centre directly.

Shropshire Wildlife Safari

Shropshire Wildlife Safari

3 families had great success last week as they went on Safari here to find the BIG 5 in Shropshire.

Tasked with spotting the Emperor Dragonfly, Poplar Hawk Moth, Yellow Neck Mouse, Badger and Peregrine Falcon over the week, the nature loving group aged 7 – 70ish, set forth and explored the meadows of Colemere, the Nature Reserve of the disused quarry of Llanymynech, the hedges, woods, meadows and ponds of Preston Montford and the whirling underwater currents of Cardingmill Valley stream. 

The eagle eyed safari group spotted 4 of the big five within the first day, with stunning views of the Emperor Dragonfly ranging his way over the Darwin pond, 2 yellow neck mice in our Longworth Traps and a Poplar Hawk Moth nestled in the moth trap, amongst a plethora of smaller moths. 

Then the safari bus took the group to Llanymynech Rocks where the Peregrine Falcon gave us a splendid display: screeching; posing on the edge of the cliffs and wheeling in flight over the quarry. 

 Three days to go and we had only a badger left to spot. Tantalisingly, the group found 2 scats within the grounds of Preston Montford. The Education team, delighted with this new discovery, set forth to find more evidence and filmed the scat site overnight. It was a long shot, operating without BBC Springwatch camera technology, and sadly, our lack of night vision cameras meant we couldn’t see a thing. 

The only thing left to do was to observe a nearby site with extensive freshly dug excavations. The group arrived before dusk, settled down and made a sterling effort to sit as still and silently as possible. The effort paid off. An hour later, 3 badgers came out and scuttled off on badger business. It was just a glimpse, but enough for us to silently cheer our BIG 5 well and truly spotted! 

Other safari highlights included:

Field voles found living in the tree nursery on the drive; pipistrelle bats heard chattering in Head Office; springtails discovered jumping in our pitfall traps; leeches squirming and suckering under the microscope; blackfly larvae dancing in the current at Cardingmill Stream; finding our inner dentist as teeth were extracted from skulls in barn owl pellets and hiding buff tip moths on birch trees. 

Sarah Anstis-Smith & Angela Munn